Prize!

The Sage School of Philosophy and the Philosophical Review are pleased to announce a Young Philosophers Essay Competition in philosophy of language. Full-length articles on any topic in philosophy of language, broadly construed, will be considered. The competition is open to anyone currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program (or equivalent) in philosophy or a related subject, as well as to anyone who did not receive a Ph.D. or equivalent degree before January 1, 2000. Submissions will be judged by members of the Sage School of Philosophy. Provided the number and standard of submissions is sufficiently high, a winner will be chosen to present their article at a symposium to be held at Cornell University. Two specialists in the field will be invited to comment on the winner’s article at the symposium. The winning article will be published as the Young Philosophers Essay Competition winner in the Philosophical Review. The deadline for submission is March 1, 2005.

Special Instructions for Submissions

Submissions to the Young Philosophers Essay Competition should conform to the general requirements for submitting a manuscript for publication in the Philosophical Review. You can find links to manuscript submission instructions and our style sheet in the Information for Contributors section of our website. In addition, the cover letter (whether electronic or hard copy) should clearly identify the manuscript as a submission to the Young Philosophers Essay Competition and should state how you meet the eligibility requirements.

This all seems very exciting except for three things. First, I much prefer entering competitions to judging them, and I shrewdly suspect that I could be doing a little bit of judging for this one. Second, although it doesn’t say so explicitly I bet there’s some clause like members of the Sage School, members of their immediate family and their pets are ineligible to win. Third, there must be something wrong with the eligibility criteria. It’s analytic that Brian’s a young philosopher, yet I don’t meet these requirements. Something will have to be done about this.

More seriously, I hope we see some excellent entries, especially from TAR readers. Good luck everyone! (Thanks to Zolt{a’}n for the link.)

12 Replies to “Prize!”

Forgive me if I’m missing something important here, but is there a reason why someone in a PhD program wouldn’t simply want to submit their article for publication? I mean, I realize one could then list this as an award on their resume, but isn’t there something more to be said for being judged alongside established names in the field?

Also, for an advertisement written (I’m assuming) by someone in philosophy, it strikes me as odd that they state one requirement for eligibility, followed by another which permits all those previously made eligible and numerous others to enter. I understand that the intent is to aim the contest PhD students while leaving it open to recent grads (and maybe even younger philosophers like myself), but why didn’t they just phrase it like that?

The competition is open to those who are currently enrolled in a PhD program in philosophy (or a related field) even if they have recived a PhD (presumably in another field) before January 1, 2000. Hence the cumbersome disjuntion.

Why is the contest labeled “Young Philosophers” when there is no age cut-off (and it is hard to see why there should be)? Is there a reason that a group of philosophers can’t distinguish between age and career status?

As a subscriber to Phil. Review, I look forward to seeing the winning paper. Since the deadline is March 1, 2005, there’s a good chance it will appear in the January 2005 issue, or maybe even the October 2004 issue. Or possibly the July 2004 issue. And even though this month ends tomorrow, I wouldn’t rule out the April 2004 issue.

But then the language isn’t just cumbersome, it’s flat out wrong. As phrased, the contest is open “anyone who did not receive a Ph.D. or equivalent degree before January 1, 2000.” Nothing there indicates that the requirement is limited to those who actually did recieve a PhD, only more recently than the date specified. (Also, the whole sentence is a conjunction, which may be where the trouble is).

Anthony: a competition is open to those who meet criterion A as well as those who meet criterion B iff it is open to those who meet the disjunctive criterion A or B. The competition is certainly open to anyone who did not recieve a PhD or equivalent before January 1, 2000. In addition, it is open to those who did recive such a degree by that date but are currently enrolled in a PhD program in philosophy or a related field. (These people presumably recived their degree in a field not related to philosophy.) So the disjunctive criterion is not redundant.

JHBogart: sorry if the name sounds misleading. I think “Early Carrer Philsosophers Essay Competition in Philosophy of Language” sounds weird. Besides, some who are eligible are not even philosophers. The ad could have been called simply “Essay Competition in Philosophy of Language” but that fails to draw attention to the fact that there is an eligibility criterion.

Brian, I think you’re making the faulty inference from “Brian is young” and “Brian is a philosopher” to “Brian is a young philosopher.” Qua philosopher, I am younger than you. The question may be whether I count as a pet….

This actually shows one of the things I like about being involved in philosophy. WHile I’m certainly unable to be a young mammal, and I’m not even a young human on most people’s scale, I’m still a young philosopher for some time yet. One takes what one can get.